


A New Meaning to the Nickname

by jamespotterstardis



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 18:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16707832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamespotterstardis/pseuds/jamespotterstardis
Summary: TJ and Cyrus fluff.





	A New Meaning to the Nickname

**Author's Note:**

> __  
>  **My first foray in writing for Andi Mack/ Tyrus.**   
>  __  
>  **It started of pretty simple, what if this happened? Then it pretty much snowballed from there.**   
> 

_Get in, get food, get out._

_Get in, get food, get out._

_Get in, get food, get out._

He just had to have a sudden craving for baby taters half an hour before the biggest basketball game of the year.

_Get in, get food, get out._

Thirty minutes was enough time to leave his house, grab the baby taters and be back on his sofa to catch the pre-game commentary, wasn’t it? 

_Get in, get food, get out._

And if he saw anyone he knew, like a certain male member of the Good Hair Crew who frequented The Spoon, he’d politely say he had plans and certainly not mention how good his hair actually looked, or what he was wearing suited him or focus on those lips and wonder what it would be like to .. _no,focus, Kippen_ , TJ thought giving himself a mental shake.

_Get in, get fo -_

There went that game plan. As soon as he entered the diner, he saw at least thirty or so people in line waiting to order and only a few unoccupied seats.

TJ Kippen visibly sighed and checked the time on his watch. It was still a possibility he could watch the game on time with a bowl of baby taters, _was he upset or relieved not to have bumped into Cyrus?_ , as it looked like most, if not everyone, in line was ordering take out.

New plan; sit at an empty booth or table, _booth preferably_ , wait a number of minutes for the line to go down and then buy food. If the line didn't go down, well he’d have to go home disappointed, baby tater-less.

_Empty booth, wait and either buy food or go home empty handed and downhearted._

Could he blame Cyrus, who had gently fed him one when TJ had shyly admitted to have never tried one, or himself for being so weak willed around him?, for his love for the delicious treat? 

_Empty booth, wa -_

" _ **Ow!**_ " With that sound, TJ jumped up from empty, or so he thought, booth. Had he sat on someone? Gingerly inspecting the seats, and feeling quite silly with himself when he noticed that no one was sat or indeed near him, TJ declared to himself that he must have imagined it. That being said, he did sit down rather slowly just in case.

Nothing. Did he imagine it?

TJ moved his legs slightly to the right and ...

_"Ow!"_

.. sighed. Somebody was under his table; how could he have not noticed?

TJ slouched down, doing his best not to hit the mystery person with his legs, and was now eye level with the table. He took a breath, who knew what kind of person hid under table?, and glanced at what should have been an empty space. Instead he found the frequent occupier of his thoughts, Cyrus Goodman, looking quite comfortable if a bit squashed, under the table and making all thoughts of getting home on time to watch the game, disappear from his head. He was doing something on his phone that TJ couldn't quite see due to the angle.

"This gives a new meaning to your nickname, Underdog." TJ said softy. Cyrus smiled his I'm-happy-to-see-you-smile, so he had spent enough time around the other boy to recognise his smiles; being around Cyrus made TJ happy. "I’ve got to ask, why are you sitting under the table instead of the seat that’s conveniently located next to it?"

Cyrus rolled his eyes still smiling, which did something to TJ’s insides to make them .. wobbly? "Hiding." He replied monosyllabic with a shrug of his shoulders.

"From who? The people who are here are - " TJ looked around The Spoon. When had the queue dispersed? And when did the people who were at the tables before him, leave? The only people left were the staff and Mr. and Mrs. Jones who lived a few doors down. Mrs. Jones, ( _“It's Emma, kid, I'm not that old yet.”_ ),was giving him a look that screamed, _‘you two are so sweet'._  
Did he really focus on Cyrus that much that background activities and noise cease to exist? " – a married couple, the staff who are paid to be here and us." _Us._

"Andi and Buffy." Cyrus answered, putting his phone away to give TJ his full attention, _there was that feeling again!_ , but he suddenly realised what Cyrus had said.

"I thought they were your best friends?" TJ blurted. Did the room suddenly become cold? "What did they do to make you want to hide from them?

Cyrus must have noticed how worried TJ actually was and backtracked which the basketball player was grateful for, so many images were running through his head. "No, no nothing. We're fine it’s - " Here Cyrus took a deep breath and TJ knew he was about to talk rather fast. He did his best to get comfortable, not an easy task to accomplish with his tall form and the position he was in. "I’m hiding because I told them I was sick. Buffy and Marty are going on a date and she invited Andi and Walker, who of course accepted. The girls thought it was a good idea to invite me, which I appreciate, but I said no because I didn’t want to third, fifth?, wheel?”

“It was going to be even more awkward because of the place they wanted to go; the fair. Andi and Walker will be sitting together and Buffy and Marty will together which leaves an empty seat on all the rides. Knowing my luck I’ll be stuck next to someone with bad personal hygiene and a fetish for my hair."

After trying to make sense of the sudden explanation, which he did after several embarrassing seconds (It didn’t help that Cyrus was looking at him from under his lashes) TJ realised that he still didn’t know why the smaller of the two boys was hiding under the table. 

Cyrus laughed slightly, though not unkindly and responded with, "I was getting there." The teen took a breath, TJ decided to lay on his stomach, with his legs hanging off the edge of the seat, this position was slightly better, and listened with rapt attention. Both boys’ eyes' never left one another’s. "They thought that I was sick, I do a brilliant sickly cough, but wanted to cut their dates short. Despite my protests they did it anyway and I was stuck.”

“They texted that they were on their way to my house and I responded with a quick _‘mum wants to keep an eye on me. Gone with her and step dad, phone about to die’_ with a series of emoji’s. The only place I could go was here, dad and Sharon are at some convention and really mum and Todd are at my grandmothers and I’m hoping that once the girls and their dates realise I’m not at home they’ll carry on having fun. I told Amber - " Here Cyrus nodded towards the tills, TJ following his every move, who wiggled her fingers and gave the boys a smirk, " - here the whole story. I asked her if she could tell me when she see’s either Andi, Buffy, Walker and or Marty coming this way. I was just about to order my usual when she said that she saw one of them, so I hid. But the thing is, that was almost twenty minutes ago now, I think she was lying but we have a complicated friendship. Moving is still an option however I’m quite comfortable under here. Eventually I'll move just not yet. That is my tale of the boy under the table." He finished with a slightly awkward bow.

TJ blinked once, twice, thrice. "That is quite a story. Did you breathe through any of it?" He grinned.

"Once or twice." Cyrus laughed. "That happens a lot. It occurs when you have two sets of psychiatrists as parents, you tend to speak a lot and rather quick"

"I, um, .. "TJ took a breath and quickly responded with a, "I never said I didn’t like it."

"Oh." Cyrus blushed, which caused TJ to have a tint of pink on his cheeks, this made Cyrus even redder.

There was a moment of comfortable silence, in which both boys tried to calm their rapidly beating hearts, when TJ, who had shifted into a different position, just barely avoiding banging any part of his body on the table, blurted, "Do you want some company down there?"

Where had that come from? He had meant to ask if his Underdog want a drink or something not get permission to sit under the table. This was so -

"Yes." Cyrus said with confidence.

" _Yes?_ " TJ repeated with confusion. He didn’t expect him to say _yes_.

"Yes." He repeated then added with a little less confidence, "If you want to that is."

"Great!" The basketball player responded with a wide grin and a barely suppressed fist pump. "I’ll be right back." He added, practically jumping off the seat. TJ, not waiting for Cyrus to ask where he was going, walked to Amber at the till.

After several minutes at the till, Amber was being Amber by commenting on how cosy they looked and being deliberately slow, TJ returned to the table and knelt down, succeeding in not dropping anything. 

"Your food." He grinned gallantly, trying to ignore the flutter when he saw how happy his return made Cyrus, and pushed the tray of baby taters towards the other boy. "And a milkshake, extra foam, bendy straw." TJ added flourishing the aforementioned drink.

"Thank you, kind sir." Cyrus beamed and then frowned slightly. "You know my usual?"

"I listen." TJ replied a little self-conscious with a shrug of his shoulders, looking at boy under the table. 

The pregnant pause that followed wasn’t awkward but once again, TJ broke the silence. 

"Can I .. " He trailed off gesturing towards the space next to Cyrus. 

"Yes." The brown haired boy answered placing the milkshake and baby taters on his lap moving closer to one of the seats. It was a squeeze for the 5"10 basketball player, he was more comfortable on the seats, but TJ had no complaints due to the fact that his shoulder was pressed against Cyrus’ and their faces were inches apart. The table’s pesky pole was in the way of any more contact. 

Who knew The Spoon Diner tables could sit two grown teenage boys under them? Sure they were fairly close but neither boy was complaining. 

"Hi." Cyrus whispered to TJ.

"Hello." TJ answered speaking in the same undertone as the other boy.

"Why are we whispering?" The brown haired boy asked in a low voice.

"I’m not sure, I was just copying you, Underdog." TJ laughed in his usual voice tone.

Both boys laughed, which broke the slight awkwardness that had occurred when TJ had crawled under the table.

They spent several minutes sharing their likes ( _"The colour I like the most is forest green." "My eyes are that shade, Underdog." "This is a really good baby tater."_ ), dislikes ( _"I really, truly hate bees." "I’m not a fan of them myself but they have their uses."_ ) and stories ( _"At a family reunion, I once drank nine bottles of apple cider." "What happened?" "Nothing good but aunt Louisa’s carpet will never be the same again."_ ) and sharing the baby taters as well as the milkshake (Cyrus had insisted, so both teenagers used the same straw which caused the boys to blush whenever they caught the others eye.)

"There’s this boy in the gym, I think you’ve met him? He loves talk about the science experiments he does with his papa."

"Hamish? Yeah, I remember. What did he do?"

"Well in the last session he - "

"Cyrus and .. _TJ_ what are you doing under the table?"

Both boys looked away from each other, and towards the owner of the voice; it was Andi.

"Um." Was TJ’s helpful answer.

"Hiding." Was the answer Cyrus gave and TJ could hear the laughter in the other boys voice. Which gave him an idea, looking out the corner of his eye, he realised that the shorter boy had the same idea.

"From?" Andi asked curiously, tilting her head.

"It’s a long story." TJ said the same time as Cyrus gave his answer, "Bees."

Both boys laughed simultaneously and if, when Andi had realised she wouldn’t get anything else from them and went outside to presumably ring Buffy, TJ found him self linking hands with Cyrus, while the other boy smiled and both of them leaned forward ..

Well that was up to them.


End file.
